


The Straight Man

by Rellanka



Series: A Year Of Cloudy Skies [47]
Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, Oblivious Zack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:54:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24692584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rellanka/pseuds/Rellanka
Summary: Zack is totally, totally straight. Yep. Completely. Nothing suspicious about the way he drools over his best friend Cloudat all.
Relationships: Zack Fair/Cloud Strife
Series: A Year Of Cloudy Skies [47]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1697269
Comments: 16
Kudos: 389





	The Straight Man

Zack was doing it again. That thing that he did while insisting to all and sundry that he was just admiring his friend’s fighting form. That thing that made everyone roll their eyes at him because they either believed he was oblivious or thought he was just trying to act like he was.

Kunsel waited patiently until Zack finally ripped his gaze away from Cadet Strife’s ass. 

“He’s getting really good, isn’t he?” Zack asked happily, not even appearing aware of how his pupils had dilated or his breathing had become just that much more quick and shallow, “He’ll be ready for Soldier in no time, I just know it. 

Kunsel stared at his friend and honestly wondered for a moment how the hell someone who was actually pretty smart could be so fucking dumb when it came to his own feelings. 

“Sure Zack. After all, you would know how his form has improved better than _anyone_.”

***

Sephiroth bit back a sigh as Zack’s gaze once again wondered away from him and back towards the window. He’d known that he wouldn’t be able to get a word through to Zack when he found out what his window had a perfect vantage point to see that day. He’d known that, but maybe some small desire to watch a person acting more socially unaware than Sephiroth himself had caused him to tell Zack to come to here for his report. 

As it was, Sephiroth didn’t even think that Zack even realized how distracted he was. Every time he looked back at Sephiroth, he looked as if he was perfectly attentive, despite the fact that his mind was obviously a million miles away- or several dozen feet away and several floors down, on the dirt right beside where Cloud was currently following drills with his squad mates. 

Sephiroth crossed his arms and attempted to get Zack’s attention one last time before finally deciding on a tactic that he knew would work. 

“Zack, I’m considering absconding with Cloud and taking him to the Golden Saucer. Perhaps to get one of those sudden marriage licenses and binding him to me for life. What are your thoughts about this?”

He couldn’t hide his smirk when shocked blue eyes swung back to him instantly, Zack’s vehement and completely nonobjective “WHAT?!?!” dying as he saw the look on Sephiroth’s face. Zack’s face went through several emotions at the raised eyebrow Sephiroth was sending his way, before finally settling on mildly embarrassed. 

“Uh, sorry for being such a spacehead, man.” Zack said sheepishly, raising one had to rub the back of his head, “I just…” and like a magnet, the window drew his gaze back again, “I never realized how pretty Spike’s hair actually was, you know? Especially in the sunlight. It’s like spun gold, or something. It’s really beautiful.” Zack shot a quick glare back at Sephiroth before returning his gaze out the window, “Joking about marrying him like that still wasn’t cool, though. You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

Sephiroth stared back at him, completely deadpan as he thought, _This is the man who insists that he’s straight._

But such thoughts were useless, and were bound to do nothing other than make him despair for the fate of Soldier’s future. 

Shaking his head, Sephiroth gathered some files and decided to just let things be as they were. It would take too much mental and social effort for Sephiroth to be the one to get Zack to realize that he had far more than a typical admiration for his young friend, so it was a job he’d gladly leave to someone else. Picking out several completed files from his pile, Sephiroth decided that this was an excellent time to hand deliver them to Lazard. He ignored the fact that he had staff for such things.

“To make up for it, as long as you don’t touch anything but the chairs, you may stay in here to admire the sight if you wish. I have some errands to run. I’ll go over our briefing again with you later.”

Zack turned his eyes back towards Sephiroth with a quick, blinding smile, and a, “Thanks, Seph!” before turning away from him already in a move that was almost dismissive and rude as the siren call of the window drew him forward toward it.

As he left the office with an uncharacteristic eye roll that he just couldn’t hold back, Sephiroth almost felt bad at letting Cloud, who had been introduced to him by Zack and was quickly becoming a close friend, be ogled this way. He knew that Cloud wouldn’t mind if it was **Zack** doing the ogling, but still. Maybe he could invite Cloud over for a meal? Goodness knows the troopers got fed crap food. And maybe if he phrased it exactly right when he told Zack about it afterward, he could get Zack to think it was a date… and finally get the frustrating man to realize that his feelings for Cloud were far from platonic. Truthfully, it probably wouldn’t work. Other similar situations hadn’t. But why not give it a try? They were all getting desperate at this point.

***

Genesis didn’t care how angry Angeal would get, if the Puppy didn’t stop yanking his protégé away to, and Genesis quoted the mutt, “Give Spike some help on his form that isn’t by one of the scariest guys in Soldier. He needs some help from us non-prodigies, Gen, seriously. Let me take him off your hands for a bit!” Genesis was going to do something very unpleasant to his person. 

The problem being that as annoying as Genesis found his boyfriend’s own protégé at times, not even he would deny that Fair was a prodigy himself when it came to fighting. A bigger problem being that the ‘training’ that Zack did with Cloud was blatantly only half actual **training** and half an excuse to let Zack get his hands all over Cloud’s body. 

It triggered all of Genesis’ latent protective instincts. His protégé was special, handpicked by Genesis out of a crowd of uninspiring riffraff to be eventually trained into a Soldier capable of challenging even the oh-so-great Sephiroth. Genesis would die before he would allow anyone to break his student before he could grow into his full potential, and especially break him over something as plebian as heartbreak. (He ignored the little part of him that also twisted and churned unpleasantly at just the idea of Cloud being sad. His interest was in Cloud’s potential and he didn’t care about him outside of that, no matter how often Angeal insisted otherwise.)

Scowl fixed on his face as he watch Zack drag Cloud out after him for the thousandth time, Genesis felt grimly determined to settle this once and for all. 

He knew that Angeal had so far been avoiding it, but he would insist that Angeal approach his Puppy and talk to him. It was about time that Zack’s behavior either stopped or reached its rightful culmination. 

But if the Puppy broke Cloud’s heart, Angeal’s protégé or not, so help him Genesis would make the Puppy realize why so many Soldier’s avoided provoking his wrath. 

***

Angeal winced as he regarded the Puppy before him. 

Zack hadn’t reached the stage where he started fidgeting yet, for now content to simply stare back at Angeal in curiosity over why he’d been called into his old mentor’s office. But he would be soon. The subject matter guaranteed it if nothing else. 

Hell, the subject matter was making _Angeal_ want to fidget. He’d done his damn best to avoid having to have this very talk for a good long while, despite pointed hints from friends and colleagues. But it had finally come to a head when Genesis had given him an ultimatum. When faced with getting this talk over with, or continuing to put it off and having to stay on the couch until said talk happened, Angeal had made the wiser choice. 

No matter how awful that choice was currently. 

He sighed deeply before he began, closing his eyes and inwardly bracing himself. At least it wasn’t The Talk. If Angeal had had to have The Talk with Zack he might have just thrown himself out the window instead and taken off into the wild to never be seen again. But Zack’s past dalliances proved that it wasn’t necessary; even though, shockingly! _(yeah, right),_ said dalliances had dried up like the desert after a certain blond trooper entered the picture. 

“Zack.” Angeal began delicately, “There’s something I need to talk with you about. Something about certain… feelings you might be experiencing lately. Changes-“

“WHOA!” Zack cried out, pushing the chair as far from the desk as it could go and interrupting him mid-sentence, “’Geal, if this is about sex, I promise I’ve got it covered-“

Angeal pinched the bridge of his nose and interrupted his protégé in return, “The less I know about your sex life Zackary, the better. It’s not about sex. Or at least, not entirely about sex.” He amended, and Zack’s eyes, which had begun to look relieved, widened in horror again. “It’s about Cloud.”

He had clearly knocked Zack for a loop. Zack’s face had cleared for only half a second before his eyebrows furrowed as he frowned in clear confusion. “What’s wrong with Cloud? Is he okay? Is someone harassing him? Do I need to go bash some heads in, because I am more than ready-“

“Cloud’s fine.” Angeal interrupted his protégé before he made it clear just how far he’d go against his fellow Soldier’s and the company policy’s for Cloud’s sake. As a General of Shinra Corp, there were just some things Angeal didn’t need confirmation of, “He’s fine. It’s not him, Zack. It’s you.”

“That’s a hell of a lead up to telling me I’ve done something, man. What do you even mean, it’s me? Did I do something? Did I do something **to Cloud**?” His frown deepened at even the thought. 

Angeal’s inward sigh deepened in turn. 

“It’s more what you **haven’t** done to Cloud.” Angeal said, continuing over Zack’s confused ‘What?’, “You know what I hear every time I see you now Zack? What Cloud’s day has been like. Not **your** day. Not questions about **my** day. Cloud’s day. In detail. How he’s been doing in his training, what was talked about by his instructors, what he ate for lunch. I get more details about his day then I ever did yours, even when you were still my student.”

Zack was pouting at Angeal now, “So? Spike’s interesting to talk about. What, it’s a crime now that I want to brag about my friend?”

Angeal closed his eyes and took a bracing breath before taking stock of Zack’s form. He was slumped over and scowling now, his arms crossed while he glared and practically radiated a defensive annoyance.

“No, Zack. The problem isn’t you bragging about your… friend. The problem is that you don’t seem to realize what your feelings really are for Cloud.” It was blunt, but it was also as gentle as Angeal could make it, especially considering the length of time he had had to deal with Zack’s obliviousness.

Zack frowned in confusion even as his glare deepened, “What the hell do you mean, I don’t know how I feel about Cloud? He’s my best friend, Angeal. Of course I know what I feel for him.” Zack paused and seemed to struggle for a moment before finally finishing, “I love him.”

Angeal’s eyebrows shot up at the confession. He hadn’t realized that Zack realized… But Zack didn’t realize, did he? He had no idea what he was confessing. 

Angeal knew he had raised the Puppy better than this. He really had.

“Sephiroth is one of my best friends, Zack. But I don’t know intimate details about how his day goes, or who he’s getting along with or who is upsetting him at any given hour. I don’t make every effort to spend all my free time with him, or take breaks from my work or training to check in on him if it’s been more than a few hours since I last saw him. I don’t make comments about the beauty of his eyes, or his skin, or his hair, or his body. I don’t daze off when I see him eat, or train, or just sitting there relaxing. I don’t get angry at another friend inviting him over for dinner, and I especially don’t bitch about said friend stealing him away that night for days. I don’t do any of that for him, because while I care for him deeply that goes above and beyond the friendship that we have.” Angeal paused here to really let his following words sink in, “But I have done, and I sometimes still do, those things for Genesis.” 

Zack, who had been steadily growing more and more visibly uncomfortable as Angeal spoke, was staring at Angeal as if he’d suddenly sprouted three heads and all of them were speaking in a language he’d never heard before. He looked as if Angeal had just completely rearranged his entire world, forcibly breaking in and scattering what he had thought was a perfectly reasonable arrangement and revealing it for the mess it really was. He looked like a man suddenly realizing a fundamental, essential truth about his life that he had never known before. 

Zack went silent as he lowered his gaze to stare at the floor as if it held the secrets of the universe, brows furrowed deeply before he finally looked up and said, “Angeal… I think… I think I need to go talk to Cloud, now. Thanks for, uh… Thanks.”

 **It was about damn fucking time.** Outwardly sighing in relief this time, Angeal nodded. 

“Go.” He said simply, unsurprised as Zack burst from his seat as if Angeal had just set him free for a race, through the door almost before the word was finished leaving Angeal’s mouth. 

Angeal tilted his chair back and stared at the ceiling of his office as he inwardly prayed for things to work out for the best. He thought they would. Cloud had been patient as hell, so far, despite the fact that it was obvious that he was in love with Zack, too. So Angeal allowed himself to hold onto the hope that everything would go well. 

If they didn’t, he’d just have to take Gen’s suggestion and lock them in a room together until they did work things out.

Whichever came first.


End file.
